<p>lol @ joedwilk</p>
<p>I didn’t know we were here to get an economics lecture…</p>
<p>A student can study whatever he or she wants, but an employer wants an employee with a track record of setting goals and meeting them; getting to appointments on time and one who has the skills to work with people in teams to complete tasks. Is that a BA? DoesCharles Murrray really think that there is a court in the land that will outlaw the BA as a requirement for a particular job? Not likely.</p>
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<p>For many types of jobs where unions typically engage in collective bargaining directly for pay and benefits, the ideal workplace is a non-union one, but one where employees can freely form a union if necessary. In other words, where the employees can freely form a union but do not because it is not necessary to protect them against abusive employment practices.</p>
<p>Of course, in some types of jobs like construction trades, physicians, lawyers, and professional athletes, unions do things in addition to or other than the typical collective bargaining directly for pay and benefits that one normally associates with industrial unions (e.g. political lobbying, imposing restrictions on supply of labor, collective bargaining to set ground rules for individual contract negotiations favorable to their members, etc.). But then that is not much different from how other businesses try to improve the market for their products and services (a union is a business whose service it sells is the labor of its members).</p>
<p>I was lucky enough to hear Charles Murray and Peter Thiel at a public debate against Vivek Wadhwa and the President of Northwestern Uni. The topic was basically this (Murray and Thiel against the B.A.), and as a Senior in high school it really opened my eyes to the idea of higher education.</p>
<p>One of the best arguments Murray made was of making community college a stronger alternative to the 4-year program. As he reiterates here, the B.A. doesn’t really teach any useful job skills that you couldn’t obtain in a more economical way by taking a few classes at a community college. The Bachelor’s degree requirement only drives a wedge between those who have the time and money for a 4-year college and those who don’t. Removing the 4-year degree as a rigid requirement, students will be able to selectively take classes that actually help with their jobs and get into a career in less time and with less debt.</p>
<p>The debate actually came to a bit of a lull on this point because the two on the other side agreed with the value of community college. Note, however, that Murray isn’t arguing against a B.S. That’s a bit of a different matter.</p>
<p>What a stupid idea. Make college free instead. That way, not only do you have a more educated population, but employers will have to make their picks based on more than just education.</p>
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<p>Not a memory, idealized or otherwise, but still a daily reality in small town rural America.</p>